RuPaul's new album Born Naked, released just last month, has already become the highest charting album of his career. Condragulations Mama Ru! Born Naked sashayed into the 85th spot on the Billboard 200, beating his previous high of 109 for Supermodel of the World all the way back in 1993.

On the Dance/Electronic Album Billboard chart, Born Naked broke another career high, coming in at #4. RuPaul reigned supreme on iTunes as well. He rose to #1 on the Top Dance Albums, and broke into the Top 20 for all genre albums. Can we get an amen?Such rankings for this digitally-exclusive album are even more impressive since RuPaul is an independent artist. On top of that, Born Naked doesn't even have a radio single. So how was this album such a hit? Here are 5 of the reasons why we think Born Naked was a complete success:

#5A LOyal Social media following

RuPaul knows what's going on when it comes to social media. RuPaul has over 450,000 Facebook Likes, and an equal number of followers on Twitter (more than any other drag queen in herstory). In a recent interview with LGBT Weekly, RuPaul mentioned that he begins an ordinary day with exercising and tweeting. Let's be real: followers are valuable, especially when your'e trying to sell an album!

#4Cult Icon collaborations

Over half of the tracks on Born Naked feature duets with other recording artists, including a number of pretty big cult icons. Big Freedia, Myah Marie, Martha Washington, FrankMusik, Clairy Browne, and Michelle Visage all make appearances (as does the album's producer Lucian Piane). The duets are sickening and add variety to the tracks, but that also means more people promoting and publicizing of the album as well.

#3Monopolizing on Drag slang

Sissy that walk! Sashay! Shantay! All T. No Shade. There is so much drag slang these days that you almost need a dictionary, or shall we say dragtionary, to keep up. These words and sayings are fun and catchy, but there aren't many (if any) mainstream artists singing about them. Thus, RuPaul can monopolize on all those phrases that we can't stop using. And because we have integrated them into our daily conversations, of course we want to hear them in songs and lip synch to them too! We will gladly buy your single on iTunes so we can sissy that walk all throughout our apartments.

#2A Cleverly timed release date

As anticipation was building for RuPaul's Drag Race, RuPaul had fans on the edge of our seats! We couldn't wait for the new season, new drag, and new queens to obsess over! February 24th wasn't just a big day for television though, it was also a big day for music. It was like Christmas with the double premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race AND his new album! The cross-promotion from the show, and the use of his own tracks in the episodes (Sissy That Walk on the runway for example) continues to get fans hooked on his amazing tunes one week at a time!

#1 Outsmarting hackers with Decoy Album

While uploading a decoy album to popular Torrent sites that traffic bootleg music has been done before, few have received the publicity from it that RuPaul did. Why? The bootleg version actually turned out to be incredibly entertaining. Yes, it cuts off after 30 seconds of the song, but RuPaul goes on to say things like:

'You Done Stole My Album! Uh Uh, No You Better Don't, Hooker!'

and..

"It’s RuPaul up on WERQ, I’ve decided to change my radio station name to WERQ, ain’t that better? That’s right, you’re listening to WERQ, this is Ru, you’re listening to the BOOT mother-[expletive] LEG of my album. I wasn’t going to cuss, because I thought, oh no, we can’t do that. But hey, this is some mother-[expletive] pirated [expletive], this is illegal, [expletive], you’re illegal, as.. as, you’re the one illegal!"

The bootleg songs have been shared on a number of blogs and social media networks, only drawing even more attention to the actual album. RuPaul really turned the table on pirates! ..And turnt it out for fans with his new album. We love it, and are so happy for its successes!

I wasn't aware Ru collaborated with the legendary MARTHA WASHINGTON, isn't she deceased? Lol. Iagree with all the commments though, I like Glamazon more than Born Naked but it's still a fantastic album. Ru is an absolute genius, especially paired with Lucian Piane.

Yes, I know MARTH WASH is a live and well. I was being a smartass, lol. Love the article though, all points are valid. Just messing with a typo.

Michael F

3/12/2014 06:11:05 am

Great, now I have a typo, damn. Haha. alive*

Max

3/10/2014 01:33:00 pm

I love Sissy That Walk a lot. Still my fave from recent years was Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous (which at least for a bit was the theme song to The Biggest Loser). Now that was exposure but not among his core audience. As for radio play, I bet it's playing on those streaming electronic stations like Gaydar, but maybe he should be even smarter and also release Born Naked (The Remixes). Glad for his success. Though looks like Covergurlz wasn't exactly a hit.

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JoJo

3/12/2014 04:38:15 am

Not to mention you had to buy the album if you wanted to audition for the new season, "You MUST lip-sync to one of ANY of the songs from RuPauls new album, "Born Naked", available on itunes" Mmmmhm.